Catherine Legault

The accused was convicted of three terrorism-related offences: participating in the activities of the Atom Waffen Division (AWD) terrorist group by producing propaganda and recruitment videos; knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity through the production and publication of such materials; and communicating statements that wilfully promoted hatred against Jewish people and other identifiable groups.

The court imposed a total sentence of ten years imprisonment (reduced to nine years and nine months after pre-sentence custody credit), with the accused eligible for parole under the usual criteria rather than being required to serve half the sentence.

The court found that the Kienapple principle did not apply to the multiple convictions and considered the offender's youth, remorse, renunciation of extremist beliefs, participation in rehabilitation programming, and strict bail compliance as mitigating factors.

The Crown sought to qualify Matthew Kriner as an expert witness to provide opinion evidence regarding the impact of the accused's postings in the ideologically motivated violent extremism milieu and the significance of images created for far-right terrorist groups.

A voir dire was held during the sentencing hearing.

The court found that the proposed expert evidence met all four Mohan threshold requirements and that the probative value of the evidence exceeded any prejudicial effect.

The expert was qualified to testify.

The accused, Patrick Gordon MacDonald, was charged with terrorism offences for participating in or contributing to the production of three recruitment videos for the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), a white supremacist terrorist group.

The court found that MacDonald participated in the production and online posting of these videos and other images promoting AWD’s violent neo-Nazi ideology, with the intent to recruit others and facilitate terrorist activity.

The court accepted expert evidence that AWD was a terrorist group in 2018-2019, and found that MacDonald’s actions met the requirements for participation, facilitation, and wilful promotion of hatred under the Criminal Code.

MacDonald was found guilty on all counts.